"Genius is the ability to independently arrive at and understand concepts that would normally have to be taught by another person." - the philosophy of Immanuel Kant

Yes, I Wikipedia-d "genuis."

I was going to end the post here, but I looked at by Google Reader (always a sign of trouble) and found this. So now I think I'll talk about it.

I am one of those people who say Harry Potter changed my life. But not in the "My parent/best friend/boyfriend/other family member's death changed my life" sort of way, and not in the "OMFG THESE BOOKS ARE THE BEST THINGS EVER I LOVE THEM SO MUCH" sort of way, although that last one isn't too much of an exaggeration of some points during elementary school.

Harry Potter changed my life in the "My life would honestly be radically different if not for Harry Potter" kind of way.

I will make a chart for you.

Harry Potter -> Pottercast -> Nerdfighteria -> Almost all of the music (other than wrock) I listen to right now -> almost all of the people I'm subscribed to on YouTube.

Nerdfighteria -> General Wisdom and Knowledge and Other Good Stuff Like That That I Would Not Otherwise Have -> The inspiration and motivation to write what and as much as I do.

Nerdfighteria-> really good books

These things listed above, regardless of how sad it may be, make up almost all of my online life/IRL things caused by online life. And while I have quite a bit of non-online life, that stuff is still really important to me.

And now it occurs to me that Harry is probably the most influential male in my life other than my dad. I mean, look at the chart. That's pretty sad.

On a semi-related note, sometimes it scares me that I might grow out of this stuff. Some people do. I might. But I don't want to. I like it too much to not like it anymore, if that makes any sense.

Oh, and I got another rejection letter today. This one went something like "I'm sorry, but I feel that I am probably not the right agent for this book." My initial reaction was this: "PROBABLY? That's a MAYBE YOU ARE." Lesson: Sometimes being nice conveys the wrong message.

2 comments:

I hear you, the whole thing about growing out of something. If it means anything, I am reading Harry Potter (book 1) now and I am enjoying it. Not sure I would say it is the greatest book ever...but it certainly is extremely good and I think it will get better for me as I read through the series.

I don't believe these books are the types you "grow out of". What you grow out of, IMO, are those Harlequin romances, or tween novels, or Judy Blume books (my heroine author of my youth). These books target an age group. HP, while enjoyed by many in that age group, is a series of books that will go down in history as classics for all ages.

Harry Potter has "changed my life" in the same way. I cannot imagine what my life would be like without Harry Potter...considerably less awesome, probably. And I have also been afraid of growing out of Harry Potter and not liking it or even not liking it as much as I do now. However, I don't think that will happen because they're just so good and so universal.